May 18 (TF) A prawn breeding centre was established at a cost of over Rs.80 million, said Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Minister Dr Rajitha Senaratne, reports DailyNews. The prawn farming project was launched utilising advanced technology. It will help to bring more foreign exchange to the country, he said. "We established a prawn breeding centre in Batticaloa. It has been targeted to produce around 20 million prawn fingerlings annually. more..

May 18 (LBO) Lanka Hospital Corporation said it will set up a diagnostic laboratory network with India's Fortis Healthcare in which it will invest 831 million rupees over the next two years. Lanka Hospitals, a unit of state-run Sri Lanka Insurance, will float a fully owned unit to operate the labs. India's Fortis Healthcare is the second largest shareholder of Lanka Hospitals Corporation. Last March, Fortis bought a 28.6 percent slice of Lanka Hospitals for 3.98 billion rupees. more..

May 18 (GDN) A new labour officer is due to be appointed in Bahrain to help members of the Sri Lankan community, who have complained of a lack of support from their government. It could be followed by the opening of a Sri Lankan Embassy in Manama, the country's Honorary Consul General P B Higgoda told the GDN yesterday. More than 14,000 Sri Lankans live in Bahrain, but Mr Higgoda is currently Colombo's only diplomatic representative in Bahrain. more..

May 18 (PT) There are cordial and brethren relations between Pakistan and Turkey, and both countries have proved to be helping each other at the crucial times, and will help and cooperate for combined causes. This was observed by Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah while presiding over a high level meeting with Country Coordinator of M/s Albayrak Company, Turkey Mr. Bunyamin Karaca regarding solid waste management services/projects, held at Chief Minister House. more..

May 18 (PTI) Sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage has appointed a committee to probe cricket setup in the provinces and the progress made by cricket clubs, with an aim to scout the outstation talent. The committee has been tasked to report back to the minister within one month from Friday, sports ministry officials said. Aluthgamage had expressed dissatisfaction over the programmes launched by the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to unearth talented outstation players. more..

May 18 (DM) A top US congressman has told visiting Minister G.L. Peiris that for long term stability in the post conflict era it was important to put an end to the international money laundering racket. During the visit the minister briefed members of the House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee, including its democratic party representative Howard Berman (Democrat - California), Steve Chabot (Republican - Ohio) the Chairman of more..

May 18 (DFN) World Duty Free Group (WDFG) has refurbished its store in Colombo airport on the island of Sri Lanka. The 140sq m store was officially inaugurated by airport and aviation services chairman Prasanna Wickramasuriya, WDFH international director of operations Pedro Castro and Sri Lanka World Duty Free CEO Dimantha Kinigama. The retailer's concession at the airport expires in four years time in June 2016. The refurbished shop, which sells a typical mix of more..

May 18 (LM) Bajaj Auto Ltd, the country’s largest exporter of two- and three-wheelers, will ship fewer vehicles to Sri Lanka this year as the country has sharply increased import duties. The company will pare its overall exports to Sri Lanka by about 70,000 units by the end of this fiscal year, chief financial officer Kevin Dsa told analysts in a conference call on Friday morning. Bajaj exports 10,000 motorcycles and12,000 three-wheelers to Sri Lanka every month. more..

May 18 (TIME) When war returned to the Vanni, the vast swath of land in Sri Lanka’s north, it came quickly and left just as fast. For over three decades as Tamil militants fought successive Sri Lankan govts seeking an independent Tamil homeland in the north, the Vanni was the main, bloody battleground. Then, from April 2008 to May ’09, it all changed suddenly as the Sri Lankan govt launched multipronged attacks on the areas held by the LTTE dislodging them for good. more..

May 18 (LT) The CEB Joint Trade Union Alliance has decided to engage in a one day strike from 12.00 noon on the 29th demanding an increase to the salary of 14,000 CEB employees of non-executive grades. As a first step towards this all CEB employees will assemble opposite the CEB head office on the 25th said the committee member of the CEB Joint Trade Union Alliance Ranjan Jayalal. He said the govt made available salary increases to several engineers and executive officers more..

May 18 (CT) The security at the Sri Lankan consulate in Chennai has been strengthened as Colombo commemorates the third year anniversary of defeating the LTTE according to reports from Chennai. The Lankan consulate in Chennai at the D.D.K road, Alvarpettai has been put under a security blanket with the deployment of a large number of police personnel reports added. The Bank of Ceylon Branch and the Mahabodhi Society Centre in Elumpur, Chennai along with several other more..

May 18 (RA) G. L. Peiris is in Washington, seeking to ease growing friction with the US, over the lack of accountability for atrocities committed in the final days of the civil war. It will be three years tomorrow since the end of the war, but American policy-makers are dismayed by the lack of accountability for war crimes in Sri Lanka. Mr Peiris says differences with the United States were overstated, noting that the US-backed resolution more..

May 18 (DM) MP Arjuna Ranatunga said today that the credit for the impending release of the former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka should go to the Sri Lankan people and the international community that had supported him during his imprisonment. Mr Ranatunga, who is the spokesman for the Peoples Movement to Free General Sarath Fonseka also said that people from across the country including those at grassroots level, Sri Lankans living abroad, politicians and more..

May 18 (NS) A Norman woman left for Sri Lanka on Thursday hoping to see her father, a former army commander in that country, freed from prison just days after Sen. Jim Inhofe requested his release during a meeting in Washington with Sri Lankan govt officials.Apsara Fonseka, whose father is considered a political prisoner by the U.S. State Department, said in an interview that Inhofe has been working for two years for his release. A report out of Sri Lanka on Thursday more..

May 18 (NF) Court has decided that the case pertaining to the suicide bomb explosion that killed Major General Janaka Perera and twenty nine others will be taken up for hearing on a continuous basis on August 27, 28 and 29. North Central High Court Judge Sunanda Kumara Rathnayaka had made this decision when the case was taken up for hearing today. Lawyers representing the petitioners pointed out to court that their clients were aggrieved by the fact that the case was being more..

May 18 (NF) Police Media Spokesperson SP Ajith Rohana said that the death of a female doctor who was serving at the Chilaw hospital, had been caused by medication turning poisonous. The doctor had administered the dose of medication. The doctor who was a resident of Point Pedro in Jaffna and was serving at the Chilaw Hospital, was found dead at her boarding house in Chilaw. The police initially suspected that the doctor has committed suicide. The postmortem was more..

May 18 (GDI) Sri Lanka's minister of external affairs, met with top U.S. national security and trade officials Thursday to build on the long-standing U.S.-Sri Lankan ties, emphasizing how economic development has helped sustain peace and build prosperity after the defeat of terrorism three years ago. Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris took part in a cordial meeting with Samantha Power, a special assistant to U.S. President Barack Obama. more..

May 18 (ANI) Sri Lanka is to build marinas for private boat parking in order to promote boating culture and support emerging boat building industry, a minister said on Friday. Opening the biennial boat exhibition, Boat Show Sri Lank 2012, one of the leading boat shows in South Asia, Sri Lanka's Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen said the government has allocated funds to promote growing boat building industry. "The treasury has allocated funds and more..

May 18 (AFP) A Sri Lankan woman bit off the penis of her 30-year-old lover during a row on Friday, a doctor said, as police investigated two other incidents. The man was rushed to a rural hospital in Andapana, after a quarrel with the 45-year-old female turned violent. "About three-quarters of the penis had been bitten off," a doctor told AFP. "We stopped the bleeding and sent him to a urologist at Karapitiya to see if the severed part can be re-attached." more..

May 18 (LBO) Sri Lanka’s securities regulator said it had allowed state-run National Savings Bank to return stock bought in a controversial deal at an inflated price to the sellers outside the trading floor. The move comes, after NSB (the buyer), Sampath Bank (the settlement bank) and Taprobane Securities Private Limited (broker on behalf of the buyers and sellers) wrote the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) seeking a reversal. more..

May 19 (NS) Marga in their analysis of the Darusman report says that it presents possibly the strongest case against the Government and the Army. This is wrong. The strongest case is presented by UTHR (J) special report No.34. It came before everything; Darusman’s, The Cage, Marga Seminar report and the LLRC. In 2009 December, UTHR (J) proclaimed to an impressionable audience (Thisaranee Gunasekera et al.) that a comfortable separation between the combat targets and more..

May 19 (DM) A shadow report submitted by CHA and IHR to Geneva for the UPR due in November has listed several areas of concern and interventions. Empowerment of women and women’s rights and gender equality at national level through the Ministry of Child Development and Women’s Empowerment as well as other national mechanisms are its' concerns. Consensusus on solutions to - Discriminatory Laws against Women- e.g. property laws, The Vagrance Ordinance is discriminatory in more..

May 19 (Economist) In the run-up to Vesak, the holiest day in the Buddhist calendar, which this year coincided with the second anniversary of its victory against the Tamil Tiger rebels, Sri Lanka’s armed forces had plenty to do. The throngs who clogged Colombo’s streets on May 18th for the festival of light marking the Buddha’s birthday were treated to an array of glimmering, white paper lanterns, each meticulously assembled by more..

May 19 (DM) The Ministry of Education a sorry target of attacks is faced against never ending battalion of criticisms. This time it is about a circular preventing the students who pass the O/L Exam from changing to a National School for the A/L if they are already studying in a National School. The JVP affiliated Ceylon Teachers’ Union has already threatened with court action while protests are being organized by the JVP against it. How people friendly is this approach? Education, which had been a free commodity for over 95 per cent in the country thanks to more..

May 19 (DM) Democracy is practically non-existent in a political autocracy in whatever democratic name it may choose to call itself and no autocracy has been benevolent to the people. Winds of political change began to blow with the Arab Spring following the lead from North Africa challenging autocratic governance with the people signalling with telling effect that enough is enough. Very close to us in Indian body politick frustrated people came out in threatening numbers on a spontaneous uprising through a Satyagraha Campaign galvanizing more..

May 19 (DBS) “Kaliman Vandi and History of Sri Lankan Tamil Theatre” was the title given to the write up by Sivagnanam Jeyasankar of the Eastern University , on the Tamil adaptation of the Sankskrit drama “Mruchakateeham” assumed to be written by Chudrakha between 400 – 500 AD. This was produced in Tamil with the participation of the students of Swami Vipulananda Institute of Aesthetic Studies of the Eastern University, Baticaloa. more..

May 19 (Island) Parakrama Kodituwakku wrote this poem in the early seventies not long after the first southern insurgency. The poem has a clear message with a call for social, political and intellectual tolerance and an acceptance of the dissident. It is rich in metaphor and has been ably translated by Ranjini Obeysekere, Although written forty years ago, it still has relevance, perhaps even greater relevance, for Sri Lankan society of today. more..

May 19 (Island) The govt has rightly scrapped a harebrained scheme––the permit system for transporting sand. True, haphazard sand mining poses a grave danger to the environment and threatens bridges etc and therefore it must be stopped at any cost. But, it is a problem that needs to be tackled at the source rather than elsewhere. Stern action such as regular raids, arrests and deterrent punishment are called for. Places where sand is mined illegally are only too well known and more..

May 19 (CT) When the govt moved the army decisively against the LTTE in July 2006, it did the right thing, and there was no other viable alternative left. The peace process since February 2002 was not working and the LTTE was making a mockery of the peace effort by amassing arms and ammunition and blatantly violating the ceasefire agreement (CFA). It was also correct on the part of the govt to launch the Northern offensive after more..

May 19 (CT) The summary dismissal of Tamara Kunanayagam from Geneva, along with a concerted attack being launched against Dayan Jayatileke and Tamara Kunanayagam accused for being responsible for the defeat over the US-led resolution, is part of a veritable coup d’état being hatched by crony upstarts in the Ministry of External Affairs. It signifies a wholesale capitulation to US and Western Imperialism led by this cabal, backed by the Mahinda Rajapakse Regime, more..

May 19 (CT) Possible release of Former Army Chief and the Presidential Candidate General Sarath Fonseka is the main talking point in Sri Lankan media and normal public these days. There are so many speculations and news reported why this Govt is having a sudden interest on the release of Fonseka. It is a 64 million dollar question marked for the Sri Lanka media as there are so many views on the reason for release. The JHU’s Legal Adviser and more..

May 19 (DBS) The political dialogue between the Sri Lankan Govt and the TNA that progressed in fits and starts has reached a state of impasse for several months. The current deadlock is due to rigid positions adopted by both sides on the key question of a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC). President Mahinda Rajapaksa is of the firm opinion that any negotiated political settlement or arrangement should be multi-lateral and more..

May 19 (TC) Ranjini was found to be a genuine refugee before ASIO decided last week she is a security risk for Australia. But the government won’t tell her why, and now she’s facing a life in detention. IT SHOULD have been cause for unbridled joy. Having fled the trauma and tragedy of life in Sri Lanka, Ranjini had been found to be a refugee, married the man who would be a father to her two boys and begun a new life in suburban Melbourne. Now she was pregnant. more..

May 19 (DN) Plans are being formulated to make graduates who passed out from universities in Sri Lanka fit into the 21st century, stated Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake. He also stated that as a result of the projects launched under the instructions of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the University of Jayawardenepura has risen to 3,800 th place in the global university rating compared to last year while the University of Colombo could secure the 1420th place in the same index. more..

May 19 (DN) Maps on geography, roads, tourist destinations, cities and towns, administrative districts, lands of educational and historical value published by the Survey Department can be purchased at the modernised map sales centre at the Survey Department Centre. Photographs taken from air, digital data, satellite photographs and maps printed in all three languages are also available. The modernised Map Sales Centre was opened in the Survey Department premises under the patronage of Land and Land Development Minister Janaka Bandara Tennakoon. more..

May 19 (CI) Misbah-ul-Haq, Pakistan's Test and ODI captain, has said that his team's recent record against Sri Lanka gives it the edge leading into the tour slated for June and July. "Sri Lanka is always a difficult team to play against, especially in their back yard," Misbah said on the sidelines of Pakistan's preparatory camp in Lahore. "Obviously we have to be at our best in all departments, because they always come hard at the opposition. But our record against them gives us the upper hand, more..

May 19 (FT) Introducing a much-sought-after measure of relief to Sri Lanka’s boating industry, the country will now introduce tax on boat imports that are largely duty free. “The duty free boat imports were allowed by the Govt in the aftermath of the tsunami to rebuild the fishing industry, but this has now adversely affected the overall boating industry since many vessels, including sub-standard boats, are imported duty free, dealing a blow to more..

May 19 (Island) A 38-year-old man who posed himself as a radio journalist working for popular radio channel had been arrested by the Deniyaya police on Thursday morning on a tip off from a villager in the area. Police spokesman SP Ajith Rohana said that the suspect had told the villagers as a journalist he was gathering information about corrupt actions in the area to be exposed by his radio channel. The suspect had even deceived them by taking money from them, he said. more..